CHELSEA, OKLA. – Albert Averyt, known as Bud, couldn’t afford a hunting rifle, so at age 17, he bought and converted a military rifle.

“The first thing I did was cut off the stock, cut off the barrel and crowned it,” Averyt said, smiling a little as he remembered the process. “I had to bend the bolt handle because I added a scope, contoured the receiver, and drilled and tapped holes for the scope mount.”

And so a gunsmith was born thanks to “a little common sense and a lot of reading.”